Vivian James
A few years back, a controversy in the video gaming world came up when a female game developer received press and extra attention in the media when it looked like she may have been sleeping with one of the journalists involved. The corruption exposed became known as #GameRevolt. Thinking the media could get the dirt on gaming they wanted, the newly married Vivian was invited to talk on a livestream of a popular progressive media outlet. They were stumbling over themselves as she relayed that she had experienced nothing but good intentions and help from her male colleagues and that there was no sexism in gaming itself, no more than anywhere else at least. As she began to answer that she was concerned about how the media was letting themselves get too cozy with the independent developers, and loosing sight of the gaming audience, the show suddenly had “technical difficulties” and the interview was cut short.
The internet was furious, especially when Vivian let everyone know that they had cut the connection at their end, as she had been monitoring the connection the whole time. They had silenced her because she was speaking the truth, a truth which ran counter to their narrative. Vivian joined the crusade for ethical journalism and was one of the most recognizable members of #NotYourToken. As it wore on, the people from a popular video game board noticed the amusing twist of her married name being close to “video games” and began to make her their official mascot, and created a chibified version of what they thought she looked like in her early teens. She is amused by all the fan art of her, and isn’t bothered by the fact that she sometimes gets Rule 34’ed. She still doesn’t see herself as a leader, but she is more than happy to be the go-to voice that people bring on to talk about the issue. She also was strongly in favour of mocking attacks on Social Justice Warriors and jokes, insisting that people in the movement need to have fun. Quite active on game streams, she always makes sure people are enjoying themselves when she can.
Physical Description
A somewhat tall woman with long, bright red hair, she tends to keep it held in pace with a hairband with a bow on it. She prefers to paint her nails either dark red or dark purple, and prefers lighter red, almost pink, lipstick when she does wear it, and a light blush. She rarely has eye shadow. She is a little on the plump side, not getting as much exercise as she would like, because she spends so much time sitting and programming at work. Despite this, she is still very attractive, and many people are very jealous of her husband.
She is actually a celestial, and her wings are a mix of purple and green, which are her two favourite colours. She will usually keep these hidden, and never shows them at work. While her husband, who is human, does know what she is, he doesn’t care, and will jokingly tell her to “leave the wings out” sometimes at home.
Physical Quirks
She is a little self conscious about her appearance, and often will try and fix her hair or check something, even though it rarely gets bad. She also is known for giving people “smug” looks, and due to that along with her popularity online, has been meme’d with this look many times.
Clothing Style
She is usually in casual clothing, even at the office. Jeans and a sleeveless t-shirt are her usual look. She also likes to walk around the office in socks only, not being much for keeping her shoes on. At home, she’s usually just in a bra and panties, not really being much for wearing clothing. Other than her wedding ring, she only has simple earrings that she wears, not much else.
Mental Characteristics
Personal History
Known as Vivian O’Connell up till recently, she had always been one to make and play games, especially ones with more than one player. She was always a bit introverted when not playing games, she was a skilled and popular Game Master in pencil and paper role-playing games. Eventually she came upon video games, and deciding she liked games so much, she would get into the industry. She became a level designer for a big time game studio, and eventually worked her way up to being a senior designer for the company. At the company, she met her husband, Andrew James, a programmer and artist who made his way up through the ranks. Both of them are quite introverted, and while Andrew is an overweight man, Vivian never cared about his looks, just how much passion he had for gaming and making people happy playing them.
Her and Andrew are quite happily married, and not planning on having any kids, preferring to keep to themselves mostly and just enjoy each other’s company and gaming. Because of their status, they have quite a nice home, and with their geeky interests, it is quite the museum of all things nerdy, from robots, to role playing books, to all types of consoles and multiple computers.
Education
Having grown up in the early age of computers, she never really had a chance to see full blown game design courses like in colleges now, so she took computer engineering at a local technical college. She graduated with good marks, but nothing stellar to set herself apart from anyone else.
Employment
Starting as a level designer for White Wing Games soon after it opened up, she worked her way up in the ranks over the past 25 years to her current position.
Morality & Philosophy
She generally believes in the good in everyone, but feels that people must earn their place and their accolades. In gaming lingo, she’s a fan of the “git gud” philosophy, which means to apply yourself and improve on your own, don’t expect someone to make it easy for you. She feels that if you can’t actually make it without help, you shouldn’t be there in the first place.
Personality
Motivation
She’s always been a proponent of making sure that everyone has fun, and is able to enjoy a game. This fits, as her particular diet is on that of enjoyment, and instead of directly feeding, she prefers to passively feed on those who derive enjoyment from the games she helps to create, and the fun she inspires others to have. She also wants people to get better, so will make sure that the games she makes give better rewards to those who play at harder difficulty settings, even making it so some don’t even give you the whole story until you do.
Likes & Dislikes
She loves Italian food, and loves to make it, sometimes eating more than she should. She will occasionally blame her husband for encouraging her to gain weight, but he has a way of flattering her till she forgets blaming him. She really has a strong dislike of pineapple, and cannot stand it, especially on pizza. People who demand respect without proving they deserve it are her biggest pet peeve.
Virtues
She is kind and compassionate, but wants to encourage everyone to do better for themselves, and is more than happy to support them. She also loves to get kids into gaming, and will occasionally bring consoles to the local hospital to donate to the children’s wards.
Vices
She has a bit of a foul mouth when not around children, and doesn’t hold anything back if you said something stupid. She also has more than a few choice words for the media, especially with how they screwed her and other gamers over. She isn’t afraid to say any of this on her social media. Luckily, her employer agrees with her, and the company has officially supported her, much to the chagrin of those trying to silence her.
Quirks
She tends to be very quiet and calm when dealing with things, and will lay her points out logically and meticulously. But if you resort to bad faith arguments, she quickly loses her temper and will resort to calling out the bad arguments and then proceed to psychoanalyze your motivations while calling you a dishonest coward. This is one reason she hasn’t been invited on any media programs looking to use her to discredit gamers.
Values
For her, value comes from what you can do. This applies to both men and women. If you are unable to do things you should be able to do, she will lose a lot of respect for you. If you can prove you can do more, or that you are highly skilled at what you do, that earns extra respect.
Sexual Style
Nobody but her husband has seen this side of her, as she keeps it very private. Even he doesn’t talk about it. But in truth, she is very feisty and has a very high sex drive. Part of the reason she prefers fewer clothes at home is just for that reason. She is moderately adventurous, and has a special love for role-play, but nobody knows what sort the two of them get into.
Social
Contacts & Relations
As both her parents passed on and she’s an only child, she really doesn’t have any family she keeps in close contact with, especially since she was never really one to socialize with the family. She has a couple casual friends at work, and gets along well with her boss, with the couple going over to her house for dinner occasionally or her coming to theirs, but really her main relationships are friends online and her husband.
Social Aptitude
Not much for in person social settings, she prefers online interactions. If she does end up at a party, she will stick close to her husband and they will generally either find people they both know to talk to, or just talk with each other until they can find a way to leave politely. Online, she is very friendly, and will help her fellow gamers whenever she can.
Religious Views
Being somewhat of a casual atheist, she doesn’t really think much or care much about religion, be it what others think or what they do. She will politely excuse herself from discussions of it, and will thank those looking to convert her, and wish them a good day before shooing them along.
Mannerisms
Tending to be very cautious around people she doesn’t know, questions about her generally don’t get much more than a shrug as a response. She is also not really trusting of the media anymore, and will avoid talking to news outlets she doesn’t trust. She doesn’t really like most media these days, and even finds social media to be toxic and a waste of time for anything but shit posting. She prefers dry, dark humour, liking anything by Monty Python.
Hobbies & Pets
She loves to read and play games, spending most of her time doing one or the other. While she does love making games, she keeps that to work, as she doesn’t want to bring that home. She also loves anime, which the couple watch together. Her and her husband have two cats, both adopted from the Humane Society. A long grey hair named Deckard, and an orange tabby named Vegeta.
Speech Style
Generally pretty quiet when she speaks, unless it is about something she really cares about. When she is into the topic, she will be sure to keep the conversation going, always moving onto new things and never letting it stagnate, trying to show as much passion as she can for it. If she’s forced to talk about something she’s not interested in, she grows bored and begins to mumble.
Political Affiliation & Activism
While she is socially liberal, she’s found that most of the left wing parties have gone too far and embraced policies she doesn’t agree with. Because of that, she’s been forced to vote for more conservative parties, which to her surprise, have become more socially liberal, despite what the media says. Her activism is pretty much limited to promoting games, and making sure people don’t lie about them.